SRT® (Street and Racing Technology) Motorsports and driver Kuno Wittmer will make a surprise entry into the upcoming Pirelli World Challenge Championship Series doubleheader race weekend in Toronto in a Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R that will compete in events on Saturday, July 19 and Sunday, July 20.

Wittmer, a native of Montreal, will pilot an all-new No. 92 Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R prepared by Riley Technologies in the ninth and 10th rounds of the sports car championship on the downtown Toronto street circuit in an effort to promote the SRT Motorsports’ customer Viper GT3-R racing program.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun to have Kuno step into the Pirelli World Challenge and test his skills in the Viper GT3-R against the top class in the series,” said Ralph Gilles, CEO of SRT Motorsports, Chrysler Group LLC. “This is a test Viper that Riley Technologies prepared and we see this race as an opportunity to showcase our customer program. We’ve had success in the series with Dan Knox taking the Viper to the winner’s circle during the Detroit race weekend and we want to continue building momentum with our Viper GT3-R program.”

Knox, who competes full-time in the World Challenge in the No. 80 Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R, ranks third in the GT-A class standings and claimed the Viper GT3-R’s first series victory in a May race on Detroit’s Belle Isle circuit.

Wittmer will compete in the World Challenge’s GT class in Toronto one week after racing at nearby Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport) for an IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship event in the No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R, his full-time ride, on July 13. The native of Canada has tallied three podium finishes in six starts in the IMSA TUDOR series in 2014 and won the pole position for the Mosport race.

“I believe that the Viper GT3-R is a benchmark car across the world,” said Wittmer. “The Viper has a lot of potential and this is a great opportunity to showcase the car in the GT class.”

Wittmer previously competed in the World Challenge from 2008 to 2010 and tallied six victories in the series, including two Viper wins in Salt Lake City and Long Beach, Calif.

SRT’s Matt Bejnarowicz will serve as the lead engineer for the No. 92 Viper GT3-R entry. Bejnarowicz currently serves as the lead engineer for Wittmer’s IMSA TUDOR Viper and the pair previously worked together in the same roles in the World Challenge in 2009 and 2010.

“I spent a lot of time in the World Challenge as a race engineer and for me it’s like going back home,” said Bejnarowicz. “That’s where Kuno and I met and he had a lot of talent and potential. We ended up getting paired up, cut our teeth together and we’ve been together since. It will be like the old days – a lot of fun and we’re going to try to put the Viper up front.”

The Toronto race weekend is the only scheduled appearance for Wittmer and the No. 92 Viper GT3-R entry in the World Challenge. Knox will continue to run the full series schedule in pursuit of the GT-A class championship for Lone Star Racing and the Viper GT3-R racing program.

“Since his first race with us in 2006, we have enjoyed watching Kuno race. We look forward to seeing him racing on the Toronto street course,” said Scott Bove, president and CEO for Pirelli World Challenge/ WC Vision.

The ninth and 10th rounds of the Pirelli World Challenge will be contested at 11:25 a.m. EDT on Saturday, July 19 and 12:15 p.m. on Sunday, July 20. The race television broadcast will be aired on NBC Sports Network on August 10 at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

Additional Quotes from SRT® Driver Kuno Wittmer

Kuno Wittmer, driver of the No. 92 Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R

Are you excited to enter the Toronto doubleheader?

“It’s definitely a great step for the Viper program. I think the Pirelli World Challenge has evolved a lot over the past four or five years. The last time I raced in it was 2010 and it was already very competitive. Seeing how the championship has grown, it’s more competitive in all the right ways and it will be fun.”

Is it realistic to think you can win in your first appearance in the series since 2010?

“We can’t forget that this is a one-off appearance on a street course and we don’t get much track time. It’s tough. There are half hour sessions and if you get a red flag from another class, you can lose a lot of track time. It’s very vital that we get all our laps in as quick as we can, get the right setup right away and it’s going to be very, very important that everything goes as perfectly as possible. Luckily, it’s two races and not just one race – it’s a doubleheader, so we can afford to play around a little bit. Ideally, we would like to win. But let’s be realistic, get a solid result and showcase what this car can do.”

Is the purpose of this entry to showcase the Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R program?

“That’s exactly the purpose – to showcase this Viper GT3-R. The thought is, ‘Hey, there’s a Viper here that’s being built by Riley Technologies, so let’s show what it can do.’ This Viper has been on the market for sale to race teams and drivers for less than a year and we need to start showcasing that this car is a very competitive car against world class manufacturers and talent.”

PARIS (AP) — More than four years after a ski accident caused him a near-fatal brain injury, little is known about Michael Schumacher’s current condition. Updates on his health have been extremely scarce ever since he left hospital in September 2014 to be cared for privately at his Swiss home on the shores of Lake Geneva. Details of his specific condition and the treatment he received have been kept strictly private. The last public statement 16 months ago clarified nothing further would be said.

Colin Shieff is a retired neurosurgeon from Britain’s National Health Service and a trustee of Headway, the national brain injury charity. Although he has never treated Schumacher, or spoken with doctors who’ve treated Schumacher over the years, he has dealt with similar cases both at immediate critical-care level and further down the line in terms of long-term treatment.

Shieff spent many years working with people with brain injuries and trauma, including at NATO field hospitals in Afghanistan an Iraq. He answered questions for The Associated Press related to the nature of Schumacher’s brain injury, pertaining to how his condition may have evolved in the time since his accident.

A. “The nature of his injury and those bits of information that are available, and have been available, suggest that he has sustained permanent and very major damage to his brain. As a consequence his brain does not function in a fashion similar to yours or mine. The longer one goes on after an injury the more remote it is that any improvement becomes. He is almost certainly not going to change from the situation he is now.”

Q. What ongoing treatments would he be having?

A. “He will have the kind of treatment, which is care: giving him nourishment, giving him fluid. The probability is that this is given in the main – or at least as supplements – through some tube passed into his intestinal system, either through his nose or mouth, or more likely a tube in the front wall of the tummy. He will have therapy to sit him, because he won’t be able to get himself out of a bed and into a chair. He will be treated in a way that will ensure his limbs move and don’t remain rigid.”

Q. Would someone in his position receive around-the-clock treatment?

A. “He will be allowed a period of rest and sleep and relaxation, and he will be given an environment. I’m positive as I can be without knowing the facts (that) he will be living in an environment that – although it’s got artificial bits of medical kit and care and people – will mimic a caring, warm, pleasant, socially stimulating environment.”

Q. Would he be able to sense he’s in such an environment?

A. “I don’t know. There is always a technical, medical and neurological issue with defining a coma. Almost certainly he cannot express himself (in a conversation). He may well be able to indicate, or it may be apparent to those around him, that he is uncomfortable or unhappy. Or (he) is perhaps getting pleasure from seeing his children or hearing music he’s always liked, or having his hand stroked.”

Q. Are patients in his situation aware of touch and voice from family members?

A. “Absolutely. Even in the early stages, even in a critical care unit, when medicines are being given, for one individual at one time there may be an ability to discern and show response to someone they are familiar with. Respond to familiar, respond to family you’re triggered to. You hear them all your life so that’s the very, very familiar (aspect) the person is going to respond to.”

Q. Is there a chance he can make A) a full recovery? B) A partial recovery?

A. “First one, absolutely, totally no. Number one statistically, number two neurologically, and number three he’s been ill for so long. He’s lost muscle bulk, even if he opened his eyes and started talking there will have been loss of memory, there will be impact on behavior, on cognitive functions. He would not be the same person. (As for a) partial recovery, even the smallest thing that gets better is some kind of recovery. But (it depends) whether that recovery contributes to a functional improvement for him to be able to express himself – other than an evidence of saying `Yes’ or an evidence of saying `No.’ (Therefore) if he could use words of two syllables, if he could turn on the remote control for the tele. One can do, professionally, all sorts of wonderful things with electronic devices and couple them up to eye and mouth movements. Sometimes with a person in a situation called `Locked In’ or `Profoundly neurologically comprised’ – which is essentially paralysis but with continuing intellectual function – ways can be found to communicate with those people. If that had been so with Michael Schumacher I am positive we would have known that is the case, so I don’t believe it’s so for him.”

Q. This is a deeply personal decision for the family. But how long can treatment last for?

A. “In, for example, our health system we don’t have the luxury to keep maximal intervention going in a high-tech hospital environment. For Michael Schumacher’s family, I suspect they have the financial support to be able to provide those things. Therefore, for him, the future is longer but it doesn’t imply any change in the quality of it.”

Q. Some reports have estimated the cost of treatment at anything up to 200,000 euros ($245,000) per week. Is that realistic?

A. “I would personally think that’s over the top, in terms of what I reckon that might buy him. He’ll have a nurse, a therapist, a visiting doctor. There’ll be an extra pair of hands when something physical is being done, when he’s being moved to somewhere. That doesn’t add up to 150,000 euros or 200,000 euros. He needs essentially, somebody with nursing or therapeutic qualifications with him at all times. So that’s however many people you need to run a 24/7 roster. You’re talking probably eight people to provide that level of care constantly over a year’s period. That’s the number of nurses required for instance, to nurse or to staff, one critical care bed in an intensive care unit.”